Forth 7 cross compiler and targets

Version 7 of the MPE Forth cross compiler produces over 500 kb of binary code per second. There are many detail improvements to the compilers and the target code.

The first major item for users of 32 bit targets is the USB client interface. Your embedded system can be a memory stick or a virtual COM port or both (composite device). The code has been structured so that the hardware drivers are independent of the USB core layer and the class layer. Version 2 supports DMA operation for increased speed and reduced interrupt overhead.

The Mass Storage Class (memory stick) and Communications Device Class (virtual serial port) drivers require no installation of additional operating system drivers. Sample INF files are provided for Windows. The code has been tested with Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

The second major item for users of 32 bit targets is the FAT filing system supporting removable media such as SD/MMC cards through SPI, CompactFlash and USB memory sticks. FAT 12, 16, and 32 are supported, auto-detecting at initialisation.

The final major item for users of 32 bit targets is the PowerNet v5 TCP/IP networking stack – now included as part of the cross compiler Professional edition. FTP, HTTP and Telnet servers are included. DHCP, SNTP and DNS clients allow more automatic configuration at powerup. A set of client-side service examples ease talking to remote web sites. Maintenance and production configuration tools are provided to reduce setup costs. PowerNet is strong enough to be used on internet-facing sites with no firewall or other security measures. For more details see our PowerNet page.

The ARM/Cortex compilers include switches in the code generator for the Cortex-M0/M1/M3/M4 devices. Plenty of target boards are supported. New drivers are available including SPI and 4 bit SD card for the FAT filing system.

The Windows, Linux and Mac OS X hosted Forth 7 Cross Compilers provide a complete interactive development system for embedded targets. MPE’s VFX optimising code generators are part of most version 7 compilers, producing excellent code quality and density. Customer comments include “Wow!” and “How do you do that?”. As always, floating point, multi-tasking, full target source code, manuals and technical support are included as part of the package. Most compilers can be supplied with evaluation boards and prepackaged software configurations. For a complete list of targets, please visit our Forth 7 page.

A customer says:”“My co-workers kept asking, “how can you do that?”. I tell them it is the good tool, they think I’m good, too bad I don’t use the C compiler!”

A user commented on a news group:“Wow, your documentation is the best I’ve seen for any Forth system.”

A customer commented:“I’m impressed with the VFX code generator!! Did not see any reason to re-code words in assembly.”“… cross compiler has proven to be an excellent tool, thanks again to you and your staff for a product well done.”

CANopen implementation

The CAN fieldbus is popular in many industries requiring high reliability. This implementation for Forth 6 compilers was originally developed for railway control systems, and is released as a cross compiler extension. Please contact us directly for more information.

Previous compiler versions

We are aware that embedded systems can have extremely long development and production lives. Consequently, we make previous compiler versions available where there is no direct upgrade path. See legacy compilers; see the pricelist.

RTX-2000 returns!

The RTX-2000 and RTX-2010 CPUs from Intersil were dual stack CPUs with fast and deterministic real time behaviour, but are no longer available. Now the significantly faster RTXcore is available for incorporation into FPGAs. In a Xilinx Spartan 2E, the VHDL clean-room implementation gives twice the original performance at lower cost, and includes an on-chip UART. The current software development tools work unchanged.

New from mpe – click on title for more information

Southampton, UK – 04 May 2016 – MPE today announced Interactive C support for ARM architecture via SockPuppet. The later a bug is found in the design cycle, the more design costs increase. Interactive debugging and adding test harnesses from the start ensures the code stays close to the initial […]

VFX Forth version 4.7 VFX Forth features common to all versions VFX Forth for Windows VFX Forth for Mac OS X VFX Forth for x86 Linux VFX Forth for ARM Linux VFX Forth for DOS There are new library interfaces to libcurl, libiconv, SQLite3 and zlib. Additional notations have been […]

Forth 7 cross compiler and targets Professional version includes PowerNet In detail … Version 7 of the MPE Forth cross compiler produces over 500 kb of binary code per second. There are many detail improvements to the compilers and the target code. The first major item for users of 32 […]

Lite cross compilers Lite compilers are for Windows only; they run well under Wine and other Windows emulators. Lite compilers are free of charge and are for non-commercial use only. If you want to commercialise your project just upgrade to a compatible Stamp, Standard or Professional compiler with more […]

We have considered many schemes for increasing the use of Forth. In the embedded world, the situation has become that you can download free (of charge) versions of many compilers for many programming languages. We feel that we have to do the same to reach new users and promote the […]

I was trying to avoid some work, and stumbled across this post (republished with permission) on one of the LinkedIn discussions. If you are at all interested in software reliability, Les Hatton is someone to respect. I was lost on LinkedIn (not for the first time) and spotted this discussion. […]